ITC's Green Power Express Brings Wind Energy from the Fields to the Cities
The new project announced by ITC Holdings represents a $10 billion investment in the type of energy infrastructure needed to bring renewable energy from wind-rich but low-population areas to major Midwest cities like Chicago and Minneapolis.
ITC Holdings this week filed paperwork representing the first step in a major new electricity transmission project that will bring renewable energy from wind-rich but low-population areas to regions with high demand, especially major Midwest cities like Chicago and Minneapolis.
ITC's "Green Power Express" will be able to transmit 12,000 megawatts of power over a network of transmission lines from wind farms in North and South Dakota, Minnesota and Iowa to cities in the Midwest. The project marks a much-needed advance in upgrading the country's electric infrastructure to accommodate the shift from the hub-and-spoke model developed to deliver energy from centralized power generation plants to the more dispersed and smaller-scale model of renewable energy generation, whether from wind, solar, biomass or other sources.
"The Green Power Express is in many ways the true definition of a 'smart grid'," said Joseph L. Welch, the CEO of ITC Holdings. "According to a study by CRA International, efficient movement of up to 12,000 MW of wind power through the Green Power Express would result in a reduction of up to 34 million metric tons in carbon emissions, which is equivalent to the annual emissions of about seven to nine 600 MW coal plants, or nine to eleven million automobiles."
Expected to cover 3,000 miles of transmission lines, the Green Power Express will cost between $10 and $12 billion, and ITC Holdings said it will continue to work with the developers of wind-power projects in the region to make sure the new grid will reach as many generation sources as possible.
The Green Power Express announcement comes on the heels of a report released on Monday that estimates the United States will need to invest upwards of $80 billion in the electrical grid to meet renewable energy generation. If the country is going to add another 229 gigawatts of wind power to its energy supply in the next 15 years, it will take around 15,000 miles of new transmission lines to deliver it all to market.
That report was published by the Joint Coordinated System Plan (JCSP), a group of transmission operators covering the Midwest and northeast; it offers a conceptual transmission and generation plan that covers the region spanning Montana to Maine and Minnesota to Texas.
ITC's "Green Power Express" will be able to transmit 12,000 megawatts of power over a network of transmission lines from wind farms in North and South Dakota, Minnesota and Iowa to cities in the Midwest. The project marks a much-needed advance in upgrading the country's electric infrastructure to accommodate the shift from the hub-and-spoke model developed to deliver energy from centralized power generation plants to the more dispersed and smaller-scale model of renewable energy generation, whether from wind, solar, biomass or other sources.
"The Green Power Express is in many ways the true definition of a 'smart grid'," said Joseph L. Welch, the CEO of ITC Holdings. "According to a study by CRA International, efficient movement of up to 12,000 MW of wind power through the Green Power Express would result in a reduction of up to 34 million metric tons in carbon emissions, which is equivalent to the annual emissions of about seven to nine 600 MW coal plants, or nine to eleven million automobiles."
Expected to cover 3,000 miles of transmission lines, the Green Power Express will cost between $10 and $12 billion, and ITC Holdings said it will continue to work with the developers of wind-power projects in the region to make sure the new grid will reach as many generation sources as possible.
The Green Power Express announcement comes on the heels of a report released on Monday that estimates the United States will need to invest upwards of $80 billion in the electrical grid to meet renewable energy generation. If the country is going to add another 229 gigawatts of wind power to its energy supply in the next 15 years, it will take around 15,000 miles of new transmission lines to deliver it all to market.
That report was published by the Joint Coordinated System Plan (JCSP), a group of transmission operators covering the Midwest and northeast; it offers a conceptual transmission and generation plan that covers the region spanning Montana to Maine and Minnesota to Texas.
